Self-Breast Exams Save Lives
by: Nicole DeSonia

It really only takes one minute, one time a month.

Doing a self-breast exam is not time consuming.  It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s painless.  It’s the key to early detection of breast cancer, the most common cancer found in women.

Self-breast exams and early detection are especially important in young women, a group that includes all women under age 40.

Breast cancer in young women is rare, nationally, and locally, such as on the Virginia Tech campus.

Nationally, less than five percent of all breast cancer cases occur in young women.

On the Virginia Tech campus and in Montgomery County’s younger population, it is almost non-existant.

“I’ve been here [Virginia Tech] for 11 years and I’ve not seen someone with breast cancer,” said Shiffert Health Center adult nurse practitioner and Women’s Center coordinator Janet Harer.  “Young men have a higher risk of getting testicular cancer than young women do of getting breast cancer.”

There could be cases on campus, but they haven’t come through Schiffert.

When a female student goes to the Schiffert Women’s Center for an annual exam, a breast exam is done.  Each female student that goes in is asked if they have been taught how to do a self-breast exam, and they are asked if they do one monthly.

A lot of women don’t do self-exams even though they are extremely important in detection.  Even though it is rarer in younger women, breast cancer is especially dangerous because it is harder to detect and it can be more aggressive and just as serious as it would be in older women.

Some say this is because of hormones or high estrogen levels feeding the tumor in younger women, but many experts, such as those in residence at the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, attribute the difficulty breast cancer has for younger women thickness and denseness of younger women’s breast tissue.  The thicker the breast tissue, the more difficult it is to find a lump.  By the time a lump is felt, often it is large and advanced enough to lower survival rates.  That’s why it is more lethal.

Schiffert stresses the importance of the self-exams for this reason.  The health center hands out shower cards so women can remind themselves to do the exam in the shower when they are already undressed.  The center stresses the importance of getting to know your breasts, what they look and feel like, so you are able to tell if there is a change.

“You can tell if there is a change,” Harer said.  “It’s easy to tell.”

If a student goes into Schiffert and is found to have a lump, she is referred out to another doctor to have the necessary tests.  Schiffert does not have the capability to perform such tests.

The necessary test for women under 25 is an ultra sound.  Ultra sounds are usually used until age 40, when mammograms become the preferred test.

Ultra sounds have been found to be just as effective as mammograms.  Sound waves are bounced off any lesion.  From the results of these sound waves, specialist can tell the size, the shape, and usually the diagnosis.

Harer described that this population, younger women, is special because there are so many factors to deal with.  If a breast cancer test comes up positive, many students choose to take care of it immediately because they are still covered on their parents insurance.

 If someone doesn’t have insurance, Schiffert works with her so she doesn’t need to spend a lot of money to get healthy again.  Many female students talk to their mothers, and decide what to do after that.  Most decide to go home for further evaluation.

“We don’t see that much in this population, which is good,” Harer said. " We just need to make them more aware, get them in touch with their bodies, teach them how to check their own breasts, and teach them to be good consumers as they get older.”

Even though October is breast cancer awareness month and everyone is talking about awareness, breast cancer is talked about and checked for all year at Schiffert.  As a disease, it takes no breaks, no time off.